RE: copyright question

Dear Holly,
You do indeed need Public Performance Rights to show any video or
dvd in a public space. I wanted to begin a film discussion group in my
library and ran into the same problem. However, thanks to our wonderful
media center at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, I was able to find lots of
films owned by the library, ready for lending--free--and available for
viewing with PPR. (The program fell through for unrelated reasons.) Still,
you do need PPR to show a video in a program, even if it is a free one.

This has been a great discussion but I must confess I'm getting confused.
A few years ago I wanted to run a 'movie night' at my library. We'd show
a feature film, eat popcorn, then have a small discussion after. I was
told I needed to get PPR before I did this. The viewing would have been
free, we would show a video owned by my library, and there would be NO
commercial gain to the institution - merely some use statistics for the
bean counters.